


Scalding Under Water

by thatdragonchic



Category: Eyewitness (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other, Physical Abuse, Underage Prostitution, but then revival, just a lot of, murder mystery sorta, philip and his dad, they have a good relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-02 04:40:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8651485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatdragonchic/pseuds/thatdragonchic
Summary: “No,” Caleb whispers. “No Anne wouldn’t… I know Anne and she would never. But him… he is violent with Philip. He always was and I tried to step in and we both know how Anne reacted. Or maybe it wasn’t Anne… god I don’t know what happened that night but I know Anne would never let that happen to Philip. She may selfish at times but she’s not that bad. She loves Philip. He’s all she has.” Somebody got their hands on philip and for fifteen minutes, Philip Shea was good as dead, and now his father- who cares so deeply for his son and just wishes he could be next to him- wants to know what happened and how this could ever be fixed. Philip falls apart, this was worse than witnessing the homocide, it was critical composure placed in pieces that he hid for so long, repressed, dressed up and a slapped a smile on. And now he was reverting back to the shell he was those three months in the hospital. He veers off, and Lukas has to get his love back- Caleb, Anne, Helen and Gabe have to fix things. Life goes on, but some things will always haunt us.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> please tell me what you think in the comments! This is bound to get more intense and maybe heart warming but until now, enjoy!

His heart stopped, it absolutely stuttered, and before anybody on the porch could say anything, Philip was up and running over to the man stepping out of the car and throwing his arms around him. The man catches him with such ease- and yeah maybe he was a bit shorter, but there was no hesitation to this. Lukas, Bo, Helen and Gabe are confused, but here it was, this was somebody they didn’t know but Philip  _ knew.  _ Very well.

“Oh my god, what are you doing here? Mom told me-”

“Mom told you wrong. Why are you here? Why aren’t with Gran? She’s worried sick about you… I was worried sick about you.”

“Billy and mom cut contact off- they told the court that you wouldn’t have the money or the time for me,” Philip whispers and the man’s head tilts.

“Never… I would give you the clothes off my back and you know that. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t think I had a choice…”

“Do you know these people?”

“I didn’t but I do now. They’re good people dad,” he whispers and his dad nods, pulling Philip’s head closer and kissing his forehead. 

“Look at you, you’re all grown up. Last I checked you were just a small fourteen year old.”

“I’m seventeen now.”

His father laughs. “Seventeen… God than how old am I?”

“Older than me,” Philip says thoughtfully and he laughs. Philip looks at his dad and his dad shakes his head.

“I should have taken you when I had the chance… when I came back. I shouldn’t have let her stop me…”

“Mom loves me, it’s okay.”

“Yeah and look where that got you.” He looks disappointed in himself and Philip wants to make it better. “I should have… when you were seven, when you were fourteen. I can’t believe she cut me off like that.”

“She didn’t want you to know how bad things were getting. Billy wouldn’t let me mention you, getting help from you. I would if I could but… I wasn’t going to leave mom with her.”

His father sighs and nods, Helen finally coming down from the steps. She didn’t know this man, and who the hell was he to show up here like this? How did Philip know him? What if he was a scummy, perverted ex-boyfriend that was god knows how much older? 

“Philip, who’s this?”

Philip turns around and he smiles. “This is my dad, Caleb Michaelson. He’s a corporate official for his own company-”

“And why are we just hearing about him, exactly?”

“Anne cut me off, she was afraid of Philip potentially having a good life that won’t scar him for the rest of it,” Caleb says a little bitterly before smiling charmingly (and to hell if Helen could resist melting, this man was  _ handsome _ ) and sticking his hand out. “Hi. Caleb.”

“Helen…”

“I came here to talk business, I wanted to at least see the house my son was living in- I didn’t expect anybody to be home this time of day on a wednesday, let alone a crowd,” he says looking over.

“Oh… well the town is closed down for Town Elections and I’m on call.”

“Call?”

“She’s the sheriff,” Philip says.

“Ah, so I can rely on you, then?”

“You can,” Helen assures. 

“Who’s that?” he asks, looking to the porch and Philip takes his hand and drags him to the porch. He steps up with Caleb in tote, and Caleb looks at his son who smiles very confidently. 

“Dad, this is Bo, and this is his son- who is also my boyfriend- Lukas. Oh and that’s my foster dad, Gabe.”

“Hello Bo, Lukas, and Gabe. I’m Caleb.” He smiles and looks over Lukas. “Boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend,” Philip reiterated a little awkwardly. 

“He’s too pretty boy for you.”

“He’s as awkward and clumsy as it gets dad.”

“Well that just makes up for all his prettiness huh?”

“Definitely. He hates coffee though.”

“Damn him to hell, just never talk again.”

“I would if I could but I’m stuck with him and his tea drinking ways.”

“Devil, really.”

Philip laughs. “I’m being oppressed!” he jokes. “By the tea drinkers.”

“They think they’re better than us,” Caleb agrees. “Coffee is the liberating stance of man’s capitalistic oppression.”

“Is that what you tell your workers everyday? Drink coffee and everything will be fine!”

Caleb laughs and pulls his son into a headlock ruffling his hair. “Where on earth did your mother get you from?”

“You imaginably,” Philip replies, hugging Caleb's torso and pushing him- the two were as playful as cubs, reunited after years of separation and Philip was beaming.

“I don’t understand,” Gabe finally says.

“What’s not to understand?” Caleb asks. Evidently he’s a lot younger than Gabe was, a lot more handsome. 

“Social services never mentioned Philip’s father.”

“Because Anne decided to cut me off from Philip, remove me as a guardian and disregard me as his father or her past lover. I could have helped, she refused.”

“Why?”

“Like everything else Anne does, for her self interest. Anne will always be Anne,” he says, and Philip can detect the traces of love behind his voice, the one he doesn’t really ever hear anymore. He knows they loved each other once, Caleb kept coming back- for them. But mom wanted to be reckless and to be right and that tore them apart, it tore everything apart.

“I’m okay,” Philip assures before looking to Lukas and smiling. “I’m okay…”

“Yeah? So he’s your…?”

“Boyfriend.”

“Like you make out with him kinda boyfriend?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Nice, he’s cute. What’s your name, boyfriend?” he asks Lukas, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. He’s eyeing him up, Lukas felt like he was under some pressure, like he had a test to pass.

“Lukas,” he says. “Uhm, I mean my name is Lukas. I’m Lukas.”

“Lukas,” he says as if he’s starting a sentence. “What makes you special?”

“What?”

“What makes you special?”

Lukas looks to Philip helplessly and Philip smiles. “He makes me happy, that’s what makes him special.”

“I didn’t ask you, did I?”

Philip nods and Lukas looks confused. “Nothing really makes me special,” he says. 

“There’s something that makes everybody special. Why are you special? What’s so different about you Lukas? Other than the fact that my son seems to be absolutely whipped.”

“Thanks dad.”

“Anytime.”

Lukas shrugs, thinking and Bo looks like he might say something nasty but Lukas smiles and shrugs again. “I can make a really good extra stress coffee… I’m also great at keeping journals.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah.”

“Committable. I like it. Are you… In Philip’s grade? Are you older?” Caleb seems hesitant and he’s  _ really  _ eyeing at Lukas now, there’s inquisition that he’s seen in Philip’s own eyes so many times. It takes him a moment to realize how handsome this man, no older than 32 really is. He’s gorgeous, and he looks so similar to Philip. Really he does. 

“Now why on earth do you keep looking at my son like he might be some sort of criminal?” Bo asks defensively. 

“Criminal? No. Not good for my son, maybe. I’m just trying to figure him out- I’m good at things like that. He seems like a sweet kid. Anyways how old are you?”

“I’m turning seventeen soon.”

“Ah, so you’re just a bit younger than him.”

He looks to Philip. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“Did you want to stay?”

“Actually I have to go. But I promise we can have dinner later and we can talk about things.”

“Okay,” Philip says nodding. “Are you going to see mom?”

Caleb looks at the ground thoughtfully. “Not tonight kid. How’s she doing?”

“She’s in rehab.”

“That’s a first.”

“Yeah…”

“How’d you get her there?”

“Walked her in. She promised.”

“Yeah she promised a lot of things.”

“She’s never going to change but it’s worth a shot, I want to have hope this one time.”

“Philip babe you’re a teenager. You have all the hope in the world, believe in everything. Don’t let that go,” he whispers, a hand slowly caressing Philip’s arm and Philip nods.

“So… dinner?”

“Dinner, definitely.”

“You can eat with us- Helen and Gabe believe in family dinner.”

“Perfect. I’ll be there. What time?”

“What’s good for you?”

“How’s five o’clock?”

“Five is perfect,” Gabe says and Caleb smiles.

“Perfect. Lovely meeting all of you and I’ll be back soon… cross my heart.”

“And hope to see fireflies,” Philip whispers and smiles, letting his dad go and then sinking into Lukas’ lap with a soft smile. “My dad is here,” he whispers.

“Yeah really? I didn’t notice,” Lukas whispers back and Philip smiles, the tips of their noses touching before Philip presses a soft kiss to Lukas’ lips. 

“I think it’s gonna be a good day.”

“I hope it is.”

  
  


Sitting with the social worker, Caleb looked over the files that detailed his son’s stay at a hospital.  _ Called time of death: 2.35 AM.  _

_ Called time of revival: 2.50 AM. Breathing _ ,  _ eyes opened briefly, comatose. Body is just barely responsive. Possible death, may not survive.  _

 

_ Tests have been run. Traces of drugs were found in his system, alongside water from the drowning.  _ Drowning. Wow. Caleb couldn’t even imagine his boy dead and the resentment settles in, coiling deep in his belly. He feels his whole being go numb at the thought of Philip being drugged, drowned and dead. It’s a horrible image, it frightens him to no end. He knew Anne would never… but her boyfriend- Philip has complained on secret phone calls numerous times. He complained and he cried. Caleb could never do anything, Anne cut him out, she’d call the cops if he cut her restraining order- the lie of his previous lovers taking him away from his son. His only child… this beautiful bright boy that just wanted to save everybody.  _ There is no residual evidence if one or the other are connected- although we have connected the correlations to be true, that Philip Shea was drugged and furthermore drowned. The conclusive evidence provides that something traumatic had occurred- there were no signs of  _ **_sexual intrusion_ ** _ but he was reported to have been with older men for prostitution earlier that evening. The assumption can be made either he penetrated or the effect was totally oral. There is no conclusiveness if his family held any knowledge to this. When he wakes up, we are to follow up on this and figure out if the correlation between underaged prostitution (and rape) has anything to do with the actions taken over the course of the night.  _

“There’s more,” the social worker says and Caleb nods, wiping a tear. 

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yes of course Mr. Michaelson.”

“What did you do to him?”

“To who?”

“Anne’s boyfriend.”

“He was found not guilty.”

“Truly?”

“There’s no proof as to anything that happened. Philip wouldn’t open up, wouldn’t conclude anything about that night. Every Time it was mention, he choked up, he froze, he grew distant, he would cover his ears and start to cry. He’s fallen into several panic attacks at the mention-”

“And that’s not enough for you to conclude that he did something to my son?”

“What if it was Anne.”

“No,” Caleb whispers. “No Anne wouldn’t… I know Anne and she would never. But him… he is violent with Philip. He always was and I tried to step in and we both know how Anne reacted. Or maybe it wasn’t Anne… god I don’t know what happened that night but I know Anne would never let that happen to Philip. She may selfish at times but she’s not that bad. She loves Philip. He’s all she has.” 

Caleb carries that sentence around with him, he feels it every time he looks at his past, at his son. He wonders just how much he’s endured, how much Philip suffers in silence. But Anne loves Philip, with all of her young heart and he will never forget that. Nor deny that. Nor believe, ever, in any sense of the thought, that she hurt their son to the point of death. She would never, she would never even dare think about it. No matter how gone, how sold, how high, Anne Shea would never hurt their son. It was an unimaginable feat. Yet… it still happened and where was she when it did?

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Helen and Gabe find out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!! Please leave comments, I'll update soon!
> 
> EDIT  
> sorry that I reposted chapter 1 before chapter 2!! I fixed it now though

 

It was the peaceful break of silence at dinner that allowed the calm to settle over, though the tenseness resides over Caleb’s back. His eyes linger every now and again on Philip, and Helen’s eyes linger on him. He doesn’t know how to approach this, he doesn’t know what to say. He glances at Philip again, and he’s so peacefully picking at the food in his plate, but he doesn’t really eat anything, rarely picks something up with his fork, like he was having a bad day at fishing. 

“Are you okay?” Caleb finally settles and Philip looks up and smiles.

“More than okay,” he promises.

“I was… well I was at social services today.”

“Yeah? What were you doing?”

“Oh just catching up on life, talking about how we would tear the corporate industries, Shelley from the infantile department has a new boyfriend, Wayne in the psychological department is expecting a baby, your case files from the hospital, the new coffee machine things like that.”

“Oh…” Philip says nodding, replaying what his father just said. “Wait, what about hospitals?”

“Nothing they were just showing me some old files of yours.”

“Oh like birth certificates or something?”

“You broke your leg when you were five.”

“Oh yeah I forgot about that. Oh and I got pretty drunk one night, I was there.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah… Stephen’s mom works there. In Saint Ive’s hospital down the street from Balt’s Bistro.”

“Right, I forgot about that. Were you there anytime recent before coming here?”

“I think you would know that.”

“But I’m assuming Gabe and Helen don’t.”

“It was nothing.”

“Well we can talk about it when you’re ready to talk about it…”

“Can I be excused?” he asks before getting up, Caleb standing up behind him. 

“Philip I’m not pushing you into anything.”

“I understand it’s just not something I like to think about.”

“I’ll make some coffee and you can wait outside.”

“Extra stress.”

“I’ll find the espresso.”

Gabe watches the two and Philip’s face sort of sinks, something deep and sorrow takes over his previously light expression- he swears he’s never seen this look before, he wants to kiss his head and tell him it’ll be all better. Whatever it was, whatever had happened, nothing could hurt him, not here and not now. 

Caleb goes about making coffee for all of them and Philip trails outside with a blanket from the closet and he settles on the porch swinging. Gabe goes to join him, leaving a confused Helen all alone. “What’s going on?” he asks.

“Nothing… trust me you wouldn’t want to know and I don’t want to talk about it.”

Philip starts to trail off, eyes set on the wooden floor panels of the porch. Gabe wants to lean over and comfort him, wants to hold him but Philip seems so vulnerable, it almost felt like he might be attacking the ever jumpy, frightful boy. Though Caleb walks out with coffee, sits beside Philip and pulls him close. Philip situates himself there, and just stares into the cup. Helen joins beside Gabe, watching the two- they had a vague familiarity, but it was partial over the resemblance he had of Anne. 

The atmosphere all sort of hurt, it was a heavy burden and the air was painful to breathe. To Gabe it seemed like Philip couldn’t breathe, he had suddenly drained out of emotion and presence- like his normally present demeanor, aware atmosphere had shut off, and like a switch so did he. He stared so emptily into the coffee, sipped at it emptily. He leaned in his father's arm, but he didn’t give the vaguest notion that he knew who he was leaning into exactly. It was like looking at a picture, time had simply stopped and everything was just… there. Standing still at the center was Philip with his blank stare and his shaking hands against the hot cup of coffee, breathing so steady that he might not have been breathing at all.

And God, Caleb couldn’t bring himself to imagine- Philip not breathing, Philip being broken, Philip being dead. What if the EMT’s had not arrived in time? Hadn’t revived him? His eyes trace Philip’s face, hand caressing his bicep, then resting his forehead to the back of Philip’s head. “You’re a real fighter kid.”

“I’m not known for kicking in at the slightest inconvenience,” Philip mumbles vaguely as a reply, glancing up from the cup to the bannister, over at the sky, it was murky with heavy clouds- the sun wasn’t really shining much anymore, and if he could see it, it would be setting. Philip wonders how the night will go with this pushed to the front of his mind all over again. 

“That isn’t a minor inconvience persay.”

“Perhaps it was. Didn’t affect me off.”

“You look like somebody pressed the power button and shut you off. I didn’t realize Anne gave birth to a robot and not a boy.”

“I’m a real boy dad,” he mocks and laughs bitterly.

“Yeah okay… are you sure?”

“Yeah. I just need to plug into the wall for a bit and I’ll be good as human again.”

Caleb scoffs. “I can’t imagine.”

“Neither could mom, it wasn’t her fault dad,” Philip whispers. “She wasn’t home.”

Caleb’s brow furrows and his head tilts, watching Philip and nodding. “Who was home?”

“I… I don’t know-” Philip begins, voice running into panick and a bit loud.

“No, no, no, no, no. baby it’s okay- we don’t have to- it’s okay,” Caleb soothes and holds Philip taking the coffee cup and Philip hugs him, nose burrowing into his fathers jacket, and a silent tear slips, biting his lip as he inhaled deep breathes from his nose. 

“Philip it’s okay… it’s okay…” his father soothes over and over again, petting his hair. Gabe and Helen watched confused and distraught. 

“Is everything okay?” Helen asks and Caleb mouths ‘later’ insuinuating that they would talk later. Probably when Philip was sleeping and out of earshot- where he couldn’t hear the words and remember what happened. Helen and Gabe nod. 

Philip pulls away. “I’m gonna go see Lukas.”

“Okay son, you go on ahead,” Gabe says, taking his hand and squeezing. Philip smiles, takes his cup of coffee and going to put the coffee in a to go mug, calling Lukas in the process. 

Helen and Gabe looked to Caleb and Caleb shakes his head. “How dedicated are you to my kid?”

“Very dedicated, this is his home forever if he wants it to be,” Gabe says.

“And you mean that?”

“Yes… why would we not?”

“Because I’m about to tell you something that might change things. And I don’t know how… just thinking about it spooks me, I can’t imagine what goes on in his head…” he trails off as he watches him through the window, on the phone as he grabs his grandfathers Jacket and leaves the house. 

“Go on,” Helen encourages when she hears the front door slam shut, wincing a little.

“He died… for fifteen minutes. Three months before you fostered him.”

“What?” Gabe asks, laughing a little. “That’s ridiculous.”

“It sounds ridiculous but it happened. The hospital records are dead. He was pronounced dead for fifteen minutes, his revival took fifteen minutes. He drowned and there were drugs in his blood stream but he wouldn’t talk. They said he was unlikely to recover, he became a solid mess. He freaked, he flipped, he cried, became this shell of a person. And they have no leads on what happened that night- who did it to him, what happened, if it was suicide or murder or what…” Caleb swallows his tears. “I just… something traumatizing happened that night and I need to know what happened. I’m convinced it was that  _ man  _ who wormed his way into Anne’s naive head…”

“Anne’s a good woman,” Helen defends.

“And I love her to the moon and back, I always did. She was wonderful, you’d never even imagine. The night she came out- in that white dress? Oh god I nearly fell over, I knew I wanted to marry her. But things never go as planned. They never do.”

“Did Philip… Did he see doctor’s?” Gabe inquires. “What did the doctors say? About him, his mental state?”

“Anxiety and panic disorder were addressed with signs of PTSD but they said the signs faded and returned for all three disorders. They tried to prescribe him medicine and he refused to take them because he said they would hurt him. That he would end up ‘like the others’...”

“What others?” Helen inquires.

“I don’t know but that’s what he said.”

They both nodded. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know… Helen right?”

She nods. 

“You should stay awhile, he likes having you around I can tell,” Gabe offers and Caleb smiles.

“I would love to. I’d love to be there for him.”

  
  


Philip gets to Lukas’ house and knocks on the door, he breathes a sigh of relief when Lukas answers. “I need to have the shit kissed out of me or just be held or maybe we could fuck… I don’t know. I want to do nothing and everything until I forget.”

“Forget what? Philip slow down.” Lukas reaches for his arm. “Philip come here!” 

“Lukas, I’m going to your room. You’re going to follow.”

“What do you wanna forget?”

“Everything. Now come on.”

“Okay.”


End file.
